Strained Relationships
Episode 12 of Record Of Youth begins with Hye-Jun answering his phone to Ji-A. She confirms that she’s made a sacrifice for him. Hanging up, he instead speaks to Hae-Hyo about his meddling and getting Ji-A involved in this. Annoyed, he and Hae-Hyo start arguing over what he’s done. Unfortunately things are only made worse by the revelation that Hye-Jun knew about Jin-U and Hae-Na’s relationship all this time. As Hae-Hyo leaves, he wonders just what he and Ji-A spoke about. As we cut back in time, we see Hae-Hyo’s conversation with Ji-A. This seems to be a ploy to try and win Jeong-Ha over on his part. Meanwhile, Min-Ki and Yeong-Nam get talking about Hye-Jun’s career. He admits to watching a lot more TV and helps drive his Father to the meeting with his instructor. Inside, Yeong-Nam sits quietly as Min-Ki learns he’s going to be on a TV advert as part of his modeling career. Elsewhere, Jin-U’s Mother tries to calm Ae-Suk down, with the latter checking online for malicious comments about Hye-Jun. At the same time, I-Young confronts her daughter over the relationship she’s involved in with Jin-U. She allows Hae-Na to date Jin-U but forbids her from marrying. As she exerts her dominance, she takes Hae-Na’s car away from her as well. It doesn’t dampen her spirits though as she heads up to meet Jin-U. She admits that their relationship is no longer a secret and in exchange, he tells Hae-Na he loves her. Midway through talking though, Hye-Jun rings and suggests they meet again. Organizing a meeting, Ji-A shows up and reveals that she spoke on-air about how Hye-Jun is not a homosexual and was dating her for a long time. Jeong-Ha attends to a client who admits she loves the pampering and one-on-one feel she gets from her. Afterwards, Hae-Hyo shows up and she calls him her big brother – he definitely does not like this! As they talk, Jeong-Ha reveals that she’s going to go on YouTube later on but she’s not fussed about followers; she just wants to head online and discuss her day like a diary. She even tells him to tune in later on. Little does he know, Do-Ha speaks to Tae-Su about Hae-Hyo’s follower count. Something is clearly going to happen here as he suspects the numbers may be fake. For now this is kept to the back-burner but it’s obvious we’re gearing up for something big here. Hye-Jun meets up with Jin-U and they discuss what happened to Ji-A. Only, Jeong-Ha’s live broadcast (the one we ended on last episode) happens to be her confessing to their relationship. Only, Hye-Jun quickly phones her before she does and hurriedly reveals everything with Ji-A’s article. When she returns on-air again, there’s no one left to watch and she instead decides to do a give-away instead. Back home, Ae-Suk and Yeong-Nam reminisce over the money Hye-Jun promised them to pay off the debts. In their own way of trying to pay him back, they phone Min-Jae and organize a meeting. They want to put pressure on her to try and quell these bad comments online once and for all. That evening, Jin-U and Hae-Hyo meet up and seemingly settle their differences. However, Hae-Hyo gets a cheeky shove in though before this is completely resolved. When Jin-U calls out for Hye-Jun, it turns out he’s gone. Instead, he’s head over to Jeong-Ha’s house to explain himself. To begin with, they discuss Hae-Hyo and how she’s been meeting up with him. Hye-Jun teases that he may be able to win her over but she quickly waves that prospect away. After a brief exchange of flirting, they get down to brass tacks. Hye-Jun apologises for what happened with Ji-A and promises to be there for her. On the back of this, the family call a meeting but this time bring Min-Jae in to hear them out. There, they bombard her with questions over the scandalous comments and what she intends to do about it. Just before they continue, Yeong-Nam is taken aside by Hye-Jun who tells his Father that he can handle things himself. On the back of this, Hye-Jun takes to the screens again in preparation for a new romantic drama he’ll be performing in. As we cut forward in time, we see him on-screen but the duo are slightly awkward given they used to do modeling together. She berates her make-up artist and Hye-Jun takes the opportunity to give her Jeong-Ha’s number. Only, someone films this exchange and it looks like he’s taking her number. The next part of the drama goes ahead and Jeong-Ha shows up with Hae-Hyo after sorting his make-up out. Given Hye-Jun’s hectic schedule, Min-Jae takes Jeong-Ha aside and tells her she should just be an observer for him. Before she can continue, Min-Jae suddenly receives a call from the reporter asking outright whether Hye-Jun is dating his make-up artist or not. With Min-Jae refusing to budge, the reporter has pictures of Jeong-Ha and Hye-Jun together. Will she broadcast these online? With Hye-Jun and Jeong-Ha’s relationship precarious for now, it’s made worse by Hye-Jun’s female co-worker getting into character and calling him her boyfriend. In the wake of this, Jeong-Ha worries that faith alone isn’t enough to sustain her and Hye-Jun’s relationship. Caught in the storm, she waits at the bus stop alone. She remembers Hye-Jun’s words about calling when it rains to be there for her. Unfortunately he’s on the plane and isn’t able to keep his promise. Instead, Hae-Hyo shows up with an umbrella for her and drives the girl home. As she invites Hae-Hyo in, the two look at each other while Hye-Jun prepares for take-off in the plane.
The Episode Review
What does the future hold for Hye-Jun and Jeong-Ha? The preview for next week seems to hint that these two are going to hit a rocky patch in their relationship but could Hae-Hyo be the catalyst? This guy has been the wild-card throughout this entire drama and it’s also only a matter of time before he finds out what I-Young has done with his follower count. On top of that, the show continues to deliver decent social commentary. It’s interesting to see Jeong-Ha’s reaction to this romantic Korean drama Hye-Jun is filming. I’d imagine it would be quite strange to see your partner on-air kissing someone else and given the problem they’re going through, it’s only made this anxiety and tension worse. Still, the ending leaves the door open for the final four episodes and quite what will happen next, remains to be seen.
